RAPE AT MAN U PARTY is the headline in the Sun this morning

REELING Manchester United stars were said to be “in shock” last night after a team-mate was arrested on suspicion of rape.
Defender Jonny Evans, 19, was being held in custody in the city.
He presented himself to police after jetting back into Manchester Airport following a day-trip to Monaco, thought to be pre-arranged and with a relative.

I was raped a Man U party says the front page of the Mirror

The alleged attack happened early yesterday at the end of a 15-hour booze bender by the United players. Stars - including Wayne Rooney, Rio Ferdinand and Ryan Giggs - were at the bash at Manchester's plush Great John Street hotel.The 26-year-old alleged victim called police at 4.15am.
The hotel was closed as detectives quizzed staff but no one has yet been arrested.

Both the Times and the Telegraph carry a picture of some of the players arriving for the party

Top players paid £4,000 each for lap-dancing and drinks marathon that ended in tears says the Times
The Great John Street Hotel is the place to be seen if you are anyone who is anyone in Manchester. It styles itself as an “eclectic town house hotel”, boasts a roof terrace with south-facing views over the Coronation Street set and does not mind it being rumoured that Pete Doherty and Mike Tyson shared a drink in the bar.
There was no other choice of venue for the city’s wealthiest Christmas party – Monday night’s gathering of the Manchester United squad.

The latest tribulations of Amy Winehouse also feature heavily

Screaming Amy held over plot says the Sun

POP diva Amy Winehouse was yesterday escorted screaming and crying to be arrested over the alleged plot to nobble her husband’s GBH trial.

Amy Winehouse released on bail following arrest says the Mail

A Scotland Yard spokeswoman said: "A 24-year-old woman has been bailed to return to an east London police station on a date in early March pending further inquiries."
The singer arrived at Shoreditch Police Station in east London at 5pm to be "arrested by appointment", before being formally interviewed, fingerprinted and DNA tested.

The paper leads with a report that

The BBC is to buy the homes of up to 1,500 staff and give them relocation packages of about £8,000 each as part of plans to shift operations to the North.
The corporation will spend as much as £16.5million of licence fee money to help an army of workers move house.
While private companies usually hand out attractive relocation deals only to bosses, the BBC is offering thousands of pounds to all grades of staff.
Despite pleading poverty over a £2billion funding gap, the corporation can afford to spend up to £3,000 on curtains and carpets for anyone moving near the new base in Salford.

More BBC news in the Guardian which reports

BBC fears for funding in digital future

The traditional link between the BBC and the licence fee could be broken as a result of wide-ranging reforms being considered by the media regulator, Ofcom, the Guardian has learned. One option under review could lead to the licence fee being sliced up so that money could be channelled to other organisations to spend on "public service" web and television ventures.

The paper leads with

Babies dying due to NHS confusion

Scores of premature babies may be dying unnecessarily across England because the NHS mismanaged a reform of neonatal units in 2003, parliament's spending watchdog reveals today.
Health ministers provided £73m over three years to link up hospital neonatal units in 23 regional networks that could provide specialist services to save premature and low birth weight babies.
But the National Audit Office finds that the Department of Health did not issue instructions for the units to be adequately staffed. As a result the service was overstretched. Its specialist nursing workforce was nearly 10% below strength. There were not enough cots to respond to every emergency and there was a lack of specialist 24-hour transport to move babies and mothers to other hospitals.

Northern Rock rescue to cost us £1,800 each says the Telegraph

Ministers yesterday announced that public guarantees to the beleaguered bank could rise to £57 billion - almost as much as the annual Whitehall education budget - with a full-scale nationalisation now thought to be imminent.In a further development, the governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King, revealed that the Prime Minister had been informed that Britain was uniquely vulnerable to a run on a bank.

Mervyn King set for second term at Bank as Gordon Brown puts stability first reports the Times

Well-informed sources in No. 10 and the Treasury told The Times last night that it was a “reasonable assumption” that within the next few weeks Mr King would be reappointed for another five years from next June.
Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, have apparently agreed that a move to change Governor in mid-stream would damage the stability that they claim is at the heart of their economic policy.

Banks' lending phobia risks world recession, says King says the Guardian

The banking industry could push the world economy further into recession if it continues to sit on its hands and refuses to release funds, the governor of the Bank of England said yesterday.
Mervyn King said the credit squeeze that had brought international money markets to a standstill was starting to ease, but major banks could easily put the brakes on again and push western economies into recession if they were still putting a freeze on lending in the new year.

The Express leads with

CHEAPER LOANS SOON FOR MILLIONS

MILLIONS of home owners can look forward to a happy New Year with interest rates set to tumble, experts predicted last night.
The Bank of England is expected to announce a quarter-point drop as early as next month.

The Independent reports on the Lib Dem leadership result

Clegg wins knife-edge vote to succeed Campbell as Liberal Democrat leader

Nick Clegg, the newly elected leader of the Liberal Democrats, will tomorrow announce the core of his new slimmed-down front-bench team in an effort to gain maximum momentum following his dramatic election victory yesterday.
After becoming the party's third leader in two years, Mr Clegg promised to bring new ambition to the Lib Dems. He squeezed ahead of his rival Chris Huhne, the party's environment spokesman, by just 511 votes – 20,988 to 20,477 – the closest leadership race since Denis Healey beat Tony Benn for the Labour deputy leadership in 1981.

Nick Clegg snatches narrow victory says the Times

Mr Clegg will now seek to repair internal rifts by conducting a comprehensive reshuffle that will promote younger members of the front bench such as Julia Goldsworthy, the Treasury spokeswoman, and Danny Alexander, the Work and Pensions spokesman. He will also give a more prominent role to Vince Cable, who impressed MPs of all parties after he became acting leader in October, following the sudden resignation of Sir Menzies Campbell. Mr Cable is expected to remain Treasury spokesman and have his deputy leader position expanded.

The paper leads with a report that

Jurors question guilt of killer childminder

The role of expert witnesses in baby death trials was called dramatically into question last night after two jurors spoke out to challenge the conviction of a childminder for killing a baby in her care. Senior judges and law officers faced calls yesterday for a fresh review of the role of expert witnesses in baby-death cases.
In an unprecedented move, the jurors disputed the recent conviction of Keran Henderson 42, a mother of two married to a former police officer, for shaking 11-month-old Maeve Sheppard so violently that the baby was left blind and irreparably brain-damaged. She died days later.

Slave labour that shames America says the front page of the Independent

Three Florida fruit-pickers, held captive and brutalised by their employer for more than a year, finally broke free of their bonds by punching their way through the ventilator hatch of the van in which they were imprisoned. Once outside, they dashed for freedom. adding

Their story of slavery and abuse in the fruit fields of sub-tropical Florida threatens to lift the lid on some appalling human rights abuses in America today.

Meanwhile the Telegraph reports that

US prison escapees dig their way to freedom

US police were hunting for two prisoners who escaped from a New Jersey jail, in a breakout reminiscent of the Hollywood blockbuster "The Shawshank Redemption."
On the fourth day of a widening manhunt, authorities appeared no closer to capturing the two prisoners, who dug their way to freedom through the wall of a cell using a piece of wire and a circular piece of metal.

Mbeki faces lame-duck term after Zuma defeats him in ANC's leadership election reports the Guardian

Jacob Zuma, the populist politician, humiliated President Thabo Mbeki with a sweeping victory in the election for leader of the governing African National Congress yesterday.
Zuma, who survived a rape trial and his dismissal as the country's deputy president by Mbeki over corruption allegations, took 60% of the nearly 4,000 votes at the party's national conference in a dramatic political comeback.

The Times reports

Magna Carta bought for $21m by US tycoon

The only copy of Magna Carta in private hands sold for $21.32 million (£10.6 million) this morning in the first auction of the “birth certificate of freedom”.
The 1297 example, described as the most important document to come up for sale, was acquired by David Rubenstein, the founder of the Carlyle Group, at Sotheby’s in New York. He has paid $8,528 a word.

The Mirror reports that

Girls on life support after tongs explode

Four schoolgirls were last night in hospital on life support machines after suffering horrific burns when a set of curling tongs exploded in their faces.
Anya Evans, 15, and sister Kira, 14, were in a bedroom trying out new hair styles with friends Nadine Fardon, 14, and Kimberly Patterson, 15, when a gas cylinder that powers the tongs apparently blew up.

Midnight mass at 8pm to fool drunks says the Telegraph

The service with candles and carols normally begins between 11 and 11.30pm on Christmas Eve but Roman Catholic clergy in some areas have been advised by police to start much earlier amid fears of rowdy behaviour and violent crime.
Priests concerned for the safety of their parishioners are holding the services as early as 6pm, a survey by The Tablet, the Catholic weekly magazine, has found.

Many of the papers report from the Diana inquest,the Sun says

HENRI Paul was driving “like a maniac” 12 hours before the crash which killed Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed, her inquest heard yesterday.
Dodi’s masseuse Myriah Daniels — in a car with Paul behind the couple — feared she was going to die as he sped to escape photographers he feared were following on motorbikes.


Finally most of the papers report on the climbdown by the Beeb over the Pogues song,the Mail reporing

Fairytale of New York, the raucous Christmas classic from the Pogues, is to be restored to its full, vulgar glory on Radio 1.
The station was derided for bleeping out the words 'slut' and 'faggot' from the 20-year-old song, saying they could be offensive to listeners.
But last night station controller Andy Parfitt said: "After careful consideration, I have decided the decision to edit the Pogues song Fairytale of New York was wrong."